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User blog:McArgent/World Building (Again)
This isn't my first time around on this. It really is something I have fun with though. Putting ideas down for various people, places, organizations, and history, and finding ways to tie these pieces together, to me is a lot of fun and is somewhat relaxing. If this paid anything, I'd be looking to change my occupation, but then I might not enjoy it as much on a schedule. The first world I created was at the tail end of high school. Every once in a while, I come across some of the notes from that world. I can tell where my interests lay at the time, and that I wasn't as creative in naming. Countries/Kingdoms named "Ferrari" and "Lamborghini" and "The Elven Empire". That world only saw limited use; I matured a bit, got more ideas, and got away from using names that evoked a wrong feeling; do knights from Ferrari all wear finely red laquered armour and ride really fast (black) horses? Tallas had some planning from the beginning, and some back story that some of the players managed to squeeze out during adventures. The Maedar (medusas) and the Illithids being the founders of the world, and there being a never ending war between them, where the pawns eventually matured and became players in that same game. It was something of a compliment when I found out other GMs had started using my world for their games; using my more well known locations and NPCs in their own games. It was a very satisfying moment when my players actually asked for a very specific campaign, "we want a chance to take down Ellinthas". They got to drag out a lot of back story in that campaign, and despite the rather sudden and somewhat anti-climatic ending to that campaign, it still went off quite well. I wish I had better notes from those days; a wiki like this would have been awesome. The Ellinthas campaign however ended up being almost too much of a victory. It took years before I got enough inspiration to continue the story on that world; some of that story will get pulled into a new world (maybe the world that's home to Vodannia). I learned that you need to let PCs make changes, but if those changes are too big, the world can fall apart or lose its "purpose". I think this is part of the reason I "understand" the newer Star Wars movies; the Rebels won, but their success wasn't all encompassing. There's still something to fight for/against in the galaxy, and there's still more story to tell. Then there's the worlds I help others build. Mid-Land's "New Land" (after we left our long standing site, we wrote into the plot why things were changing so much) was a lot of fun to write. It was nice to have some help, and I still believe that help kept me from getting too extreme in my writing. It kept me from creating something that no one understood. It also helped me fill in some gaps where I didn't have all of the ideas; but I still got to fill in the stuff that I did have ideas for. Kaernest (and whatever I was calling it before Kaernest) was the next big step. Sergio and I started that back in 2001. It was meant to be the ultimate game setting and system. It's had too many re-writes, and in some ways, I went down that rabbit hole of making something that wasn't "just another world of elves and dwarves", but then when I tried to run games on it, no one knew what to expect or who was what. I think this is why almost 20 years later, I'm still getting ideas down. I wish Sergio where closer so he could help me fill in those spaces where I don't have ideas, and to reign me in from getting crazy ideas that are difficult to connect with other crazy ideas. So I'm building this world a bit differently. Instead of planning out the whole world, I'm working at a local piece and will work out from there. The first campaign will focus on "civilization" in Vodannia. In the future I hope to spread out to the frontier with either Innerhold or maybe The Steppes of the The Caliphate. When I really think about it, I realize my favorite games (not to be confused with campaigns) are the ones with really well written settings. I can forgive a poor system better than I can a weak setting. Shadowrun's setting is compelling, inspiring, and full of flavor. 7th Sea is recognizable, and inspiring because I immediately have ideas based on history, and the flavor is definitely there; having the different nations have their own strong flavor with magic and swordsman schools unique to it. Midnight and Iron Kingdoms took "just another elf and dwarf world" and made them something different; something to experience with a system that I already knew (arguably too well). Thanks to John Wick, Jordan Weisman](and William Gibson), Brian Snoddy and Matt Wilson, and the guys over at Fantasy Flight Games for the stories you've helped create and lending us your art and a glimpse into your minds. Category:Blog posts